Opposition grill govt over Dasti’s arrest

Continue assembly boycott demanding live telecast of their speeches

ISLAMABAD: The arrest of MNA Jamshed Dasti provided another opportunity to the already-enraged opposition to continue its protest in the National Assembly as the budget session approaches its final stages.

The opposition parties held a meeting on Monday before the start of the sitting and decided to intensify their protest during the ongoing session.

The meeting, which was chaired by the opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah, also expressed reservations over the situation in the Gulf. It also lamented the government’s ‘idle’ attitude and ‘failed’ diplomacy over the issue.

Shah, while talking to the media after the meeting, said the opposition would stage a protest on Wednesday in the assembly premises by holding placards for the rights of the public.



The entire opposition also staged walkout from the House against the government’s refusal to telecast the opposition lawmakers’ budget speeches. The joint opposition has been boycotting the debate over the issue since May 29.

Shah, while speaking in the assembly, said, “The government cannot bear the opposition.” He added, “When dictatorship emerges, it damages institutions.”

“You [government] may have a lot of arguments, but I have no argument other than the sovereignty of parliament. One day a parliamentarian [Sheikh Rasheed] was knowingly humiliated and the other day another [Dasti] was implicated in cases. He [Dasti] was protesting inside parliament and you arrested him and put him in prison,” Shah stated.

The PPP lawmaker lamented that the Punjab government first imprisoned Dasti in Multan and then shifted him to Dera Ghazi Khan. He said there were days when General (retd) Muharraf used to show his fist in aggression. “Where is he now,” he asked, urging the speaker to make an effort to resolve the issues Dasti was protesting for and take credit for it.



Shah said that Dasti was arrested the very next day of the presidential address to the joint sitting of parliament. He added that under rule 108, the speaker has the prerogative to order the presence of a lawmaker in the House.

However, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq informed the assembly that Dasti had been released after he issued a production order on receiving a request from the arrested MNA.

About the Gulf diplomatic row, Shah said the regional situation was worsening. He said the opposition had warned the government to avoid the Saudi-led alliance.

Speaking on a point of order, PTI’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the government should review its policy of indifference to the opposition during the budget debate. He regretted that the government had not learnt from its past experiences.



Qureshi said Dasti was being kept in the cell of terrorists and even his lawyers were not allowed to meet him to get the advocacy letter (wakalatnama) signed. He said he and another MNA had paid a visit to the Multan prison but they were not allowed to meet Dasti.

“Even criminals involved in murders have the facility to meet people, but this facility is not available to Dasti,” he said, adding that the government did not know how much it damaged it was doing to parliamentary practices and democratic goodwill.

He also regretted that neither the backbenchers of the treasury nor the ministers were interested in the House proceedings.

After Qureshi’s speech, the entire opposition walked out of the assembly for not getting live coverage of their speeches.

Earlier, the media also boycotted the proceedings for some time over certain issues, including the killing of a journalist in Haripur.